On Thursday, Oct. 17, over 350 Hamline students and Midway community members gathered in Bush Ballroom for the first Hamline Undergraduate Student Congress (HUSC) and Hamline Midway Coalition (HMC) town hall with local officials. A variety of issues were discussed but there was an emphasis from the community on the Kimball Court Apartments and the opioid and housing crisis in the Midway.
Minnesota House Representatives Leigh Finke and Samakab Hussein, Senator Sandy Pappas, Councilwoman Mitra Jalai and County Commissioner Rena Moran gathered to answer the community’s questions in a structured, non-open mic format. Community members submitted over 150 questions prior to the town hall that were consolidated and divided into four different topics—environment, transportation, housing, which includes the opioid crisis, public health and safety and development and business. These sections were intended to expand the discussion at the town hall.
“We tried to set up the different questions we got in all of those different domains so that folks could hear from their elected representatives around all the different issues that affect life in the community, not just one building, not just one crisis,” Hamline alum and HMC Board President Cole Hanson said.
The town hall allowed the discussion of issues such as the safety and cleanliness of the Metro Transit green line, Kimball Court and renter’s rights that people are facing in the community to hear what is being done to address them. HUSC External President and junior Elisa Lopez hopes the town hall helps students and community members feel supported and understood when addressing problems relevant to them.
“Having people and having a community who is willing to back you and knowing your community is backing you and understands where you are and understands your concerns is the most important step to first find your footing and find solutions with those issues,” Lopez said.
Despite the variety of topics, there was a sense of community outrage focused on Kimball Court. Some community members handed out police incident reports regarding people smoking fentanyl outside of the Kimball Court Apartments on multiple occasions and verbally expressed their discontent with the situation during the town hall. One community member and landlord of a fourplex near the apartments, Andrea Suchy-Shinn, was worried about the lack of support and safety measures taken around this crisis. Suchy-Shinn hopes to continue to bring community members together and pressure the local officials to acknowledge the issue and present new solutions.
“I came here specifically as a citizen to address the issues we are facing in the midway. It’s really bad. It’s unsafe. I’m watching people die, I’m watching people use, they are using openly, they are not hiding it…I would love a safe neighborhood. I would love to walk past Kimball Court without my dogs and feel safe. That’s what I would love,” Suchy-Shinn said.
There will be a public Q & A to further discuss Kimball Court on Thursday, Nov. 7 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Hamline University’s West Hall hosted by HMC Development Committee.